NIALL LACEY - His many friends in the club wish Niall Lacey all the best in his new job as manager of the StLachtain's hurling team for 2016. He has given trojan service toDicksboro. His work ethic is incredible and his service as a player, coach and fitness guru are legendary in the ’Boro and he has done so much to help improve the physical condition of the players. If anyone can drive on StLachtain's it is Niall.

TOM CANTWELL - Mrs Joan Knox has been bereaved by the death of her brother, Tom Cantwell,
affectionately known as TC. There was a great turn-out from the club
for his obsequies. The club's sympathies go to to Joan and her family.

NEW YEAR'S EVE - Joan Campion has assembled a great team for the annual New Year's Eve bash in the newly refurbished club house. Music and dancing to 'Showdown' with finger food and spot prizes. There
will be a Hot Punch reception at 9pm and a great night guaranteed, all
for a mere €5. Celebrate the New Year at the highly acclaimed and
comfortable Palmerstown venue.

LOTTO - The Dicksboro Lotto jackpot of €4,550 was not won last week. Numbers drawn were: 17, 26, 28, 32.

Dicksboro has a new new club secretary following the well attended AGM on Sunday night, Edmund Nolan will take over from the hardworking and extremely popular Pat Moylan who stood down after five years at the helm. Club chairman, Eddie Holohan lavished praise on the Dunnamaggin native who has done so much for the club.

Pat
will continue in other parts of the club but he will be badly missed by
the executive. However, Ed Nolan is a great addition and adds another
bit of badly needed Munster blood to the executive.

Both
Pat Moylan and Eddie Holohan (Club Chairman) gave positive reports but
the challenge of keeping the current crop of minors and under-21 players
involved was the stand-out issue for both men

Of the 2012 Dicksboro minor team only three are still playing.

With
over 35 minors this year and a huge crew of under-21s, the club will
have to accommodate them somehow next year and the fact that the juniors
struggled to field a team in the Junior county semi-final was also
raised as was the fact that the County Board fixed a minor championship
match for the same weekend. It is a huge logistical nightmare.

At a
recent County Board event, it was revealed there were no minor or
under-16 matches played in the county during July or August.

He
said a player who suffers concussion should not even train for two
weeks after the last symptom of the concussion and not from the date of
the incident. He pointed out that the player needn't actually receive a
blow to the head to be concussed but be jolted one way or the other.

He
said any return to play has to be gradual. If a player receives a
second concussion it should be at least three months before any return
to action should be considered. He also made it clear that players
playing in an age group above their own should not do so because there
was a major risk factor. So under-14s should not be play under-16 and he
said that the mentors, selectors and managers should play the
players who are up to the age and not drop down an age group.

He
also made it clear that it is easy to miss a concussion during a
match and that there were tell tale signs of being groggy, shaky on
their feet, disorientated.

He said that once there was a
concussion, the player has to be taken off and that even if the player
wanted to play on he said he is no use to the team. He also said that
younger players had to be protected from their parents in cases of
concussion.

CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS: In his report, chairman, Eddie Holohan focused on the future. He wants to create a
new hurling committee, consisting of a small group drawn from those
involved with all teams. "Their role would be to ensure all aspects of
our games such as coaching, training, player participation, loss of
player numbers, health and safety of players etc were being taken care
of.

The
committee, under the chair of the Games Chairman would meet regularly,
update the Executive and advise relevant parties of whatever work
/changes were necessary".

He
also sees the need for a Coaching Director to get a standard level of
skills across all ages, especially from the younger ages.

"Setting
standards and monitoring these standards would be a key role in this
work. The benefit of this role I believe is that players would mature
through the grades with minimum level of acceptable standards of skills
across the key areas of our sport. "

On
the facilities front and these have been on our radar for a few years
and are merely constricted by funding. In no particular order I suggest
that we need to install a complete drainage system in both our pitches,
an extension of/upgrading our ballwall is necessary and an improvement
in our game viewing facilities in some form is important.

"My
final proposal, and the one which in conjunction with the first two
above is not money dependent, is a new Strategic Review. Our existing
review has in most part been fully implemented. In its production, that
Review generated some excellent ideas, many which have been incorporated
into the various developments over recent years. Now is the time to go
back to this rich vein of ideas and I would hope to convene the project
in January with a view to getting a Plan for the next five years. I am
purposely not referring to playing facilities because we are in “very
continued” discussions re James Park.

SECRETARY'S REPORT -
Pat Moylan said the year started off with a fantastic win in the much
delayed Roinn A U21 Championship (2014) following a replay
v. Thomastown and concluded with thrilling double championship and
league wins at Minor A level. Club highlights sandwiched between these
wins included the winning of the Lisdowney 7s competition,
Paddy Cahill Cup and Junior (Section B) Championship, the hosting of the
National Launch of the GAA All-Ireland Series, a fantastic "Buy a Block
for the ’Boro" fundraising campaign, increased use of the new clubhouse
and coffee dock, another brilliant Kids Summer Camp and family BBQ.

He
congratulated Cillian Buckley on winning his 3rd senior All-Ireland
medal and 2nd All-Star this year and complimented him on continuing to
be a fantastic ambassador for this club both on and off the field.

"I
further congratulate the Camogie club on winning the treble of U16, U18
and U21 Championships and their support of the
aforementioned fundraising campaign to date. I compliment dual mentor
Jim Kerwick on his astonishing run of success in both codes in 2015 with
the minor A football championship still to be concluded.

The
Senior team after a slow start in the League; losing to
Clara, O'Loughlins and drawing with Carrickshock came good to beat James
Stephens and Castlecomer in the concluding rounds. With Senior status
assured, the ’Boro played a thrilling draw in the championship opener
v Danesfort before coming good a week later in the replay by 0-15 to
1-08. With the constant games and ensuing injuries to key players,
Dicksboro just came up short versus eventual Championship runners up
O'Loughlin Gaeks by 2-15 to 1-13. Indeed a common theme across the club
was the multiple fixture dilemma faced by the club over the weekends of
September and October which unfortunately eventually took its injury
toll – I await with interest proposed fixture revisions promised by the
Co. Board for 2016. Supreme thanks to the management team of
Richie Mulrooney, Michael Walsh, Simon Walton and Mark Dowling for their
professional approach all year.

The Junior team mentored by
Sam Dunlop, Martin Gaffney, Graham Egan and SeanFennelly played an
extraordinary number of games across four competitions with seven rounds
in the League, an All-County League campaign, winning the
Paddy Cahill Cup v Glenmore 2-18 to 1-13 and beating St Martin's,
James Stephens and O'Loughlin's on route to a narrow defeat in the Co.
Junior Championship semi-final by Kilmacow on a 1-12 to 1-10 scoreline,
having led the game until the closing ten minutes. Again multiple
fixtures and demands on players proved to be the clubs undoing with the
Minor championship semi- final fixed for the same weekend. Thanks to
the afore mentioned management team and I contend a huge challenge
faces the club in 2016 as the previously mentioned victorious
U21 and U18 players look to develop their playing careers while at the
same time ensuring the club provides as much game time as possible for
all our adult players – considerable planning and structures are needed
to retain the maximum number of adult players in the club while at the
same time ensuring player burnout does not occur on our doorstep. I`m
sure we will have constructive debate at today`s AGM.

The Junior B
panel managed by Brian Fitzpatrick, EJ Ryan, Jim Neary, Declan Gough
and Phil Hogan played in Junior B and Northern Junior B Leagues
and Championships during the year with wins over Threecastles
and Galmoy and a defeat to Bennettsbridge in the Nth Junior B
Championship before succumbing to Barrow Rangers 4-11 to 0-10 in the 1st
round of the Championship proper. Again this grade provides significant
game time for our adult players and needs to be looked at as an
opportunity of blooding young hurlers to the rigours of adult hurling
while providing enjoyment for the

Following the extended U21
campaign of 2014/2015, the early winter campaign of 2015 opened with a
great win over a hotly fancied Bennettsbridge in Callan before an extra
time defeat to St. Lachtain's by 4-18 to 1-24 in St.
John's Park. Player fatigue and accumulated injuries were huge
contributory factors. Thanks to Ger Henderson, Simon Walton,
Sam Dunlop and Jim Kerwick for their good work.

Our Gaelic
footballers under the guidance of Sean Keane, Niall Morrissey and Liam
Scott acquitted themselves well in the Intermediate League with wins
over Danesfort and Castlecomer, with a narrow loss to Bennettsbridge. In
the championship the ’Boro stormed to a great 1st round win
over Piltown (2-11 to 3-03), semi-final win v Castlecomer (3-05 to 1-09)
before an agonising 1-05 to 0-09 defeat to Danesfort in the Co. Final.

Thanks
to the mentors for their diligent work and to the other adult mentor
teams for affording adult gaelic football in the club due respect.

Juvenile
Games / Activities: With 256 registered juvenile players and 48
juvenile mentors involved from U6 to U18 grades, 2015 was a hugely
successful year. The double winning Minor A team grabbed the highlights
in the Autumn with hugely important wins in Championship and League with
the Roinn C team desperately unlucky in the Championship final v
Young Irelands before capturing the Shield crown. Many congrats and
thanks to Jim Kerwick, Sean Moore, Padraic Lacey and John Treacy
and team medic Anthony Martin.

Tremendous work continues from U6
to U12 levels under the stewardship of juvenile officers John Treacy
and Yvonne Finlay. Three fantastic underage tournaments at U8, U10
and U12 levels during September really showcased the great work being
done along with the hospitality shown to all our highly appreciative
visiting clubs – in addition recent presentations have been made to our
local O'Neil Centre and The School of the Holy Spirit. Congrats to all
juvenile players who represented Kilkenny at all grades and development
squads with specific congrats to Conor Doheny, Andrew Gaffney, Bill
Sheehan, Robbie Murphy and Evan Carroll on winning Leinster Minor
Championship honours. Congrats to Mark Nolan, Eoghan Moylan,
Justin Cahill, Liam Stynes and Liam Brennan-Smyth on winning the
Michael Foley Leinster U15 inter-county tournament. It’s also very
gratifying to see many of our players representing the club at Colleges
level with St. Kieran’s and Kilkenny CBS with
distinction. Well done to those who organised a successful family BBQ in
late June along with a fantastic 4th Annual Kids Summer Camp in late
July involving 280 kids and providing invaluable experience to 24
juvenile camp leaders – again huge thanks to Grainne and
John Timmons and all concerned for their supreme organisation. He also
thankied the small group of people who organised brilliant Halloween and
Christmas Parties for our younger members and families.

CLUB
HURLER OF THE YEAR - This was won by Evan Cody after a fantastic year
with the club at under 21 and senior level and the Patsy Lacey Cup was
presented by Patsy's son, Niall.

FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR - Despite injury, Cillian Starr was named footballer of the year at the AGM.

EUGENE BEGLEY -
Former club chairman and one of the best people in the club,
Eugene Begley celebrated his 80th birthday at the weekend. He was
flooded with messages of best wishes on social media after word got out.
He remains a source of inspiration to all and never misses any match or
event to do with the ’Boro.